Connected
by wanderinggypsyfeet
Summary: A little one-shot into the minds of the cluster and how they deal with their newfound connection.


**AN:** Because I fell in love with this show and give me season 2 dammit.

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Capheus and Nomi are the most delighted with their connection. The rest of them suspect that it's because they're both only children- Capheus truly and Nomi by choice. To go from being isolated- Capheus having only his mother and Nomi her loving girlfriend, to having 7 other humans is exciting for them.

Capheus has an extraordinary talent. He can sense, perhaps better than anyone else, when someone is in distress. They all feel it, like a tug on the heartstrings, but he can identify which member it's coming from easily and is there in a blink of an eye, with his easygoing smile and just the right advice.

He spent nearly every moment possible alternating between Riley and Kala for those first couple days after Will stole Riley away from Whispers. Riley was practically unconsolable after the boat ride, sitting in a shitty motel room with coma-like Will. He would make sure she was eating, showering, keeping up appearances.

Kala was different- she went about with gritted determination, her usually sunny nature clouded by the fact that her and Wolfgang wouldn't speak, their anger and hurt reverberating around the cluster like a bouncy ball. He mostly tried to make her laugh, on the nights when her parents would push her for an answer about her marriage and she would mourn the fact that once she would've told them everything. When she wasn't in the lab, trying to figure out what drugs might help Will, they wandered around her city together, Capheus taking in the views with a childlike wonder that reminded her innocence existed in this world.

Nomi visits them a lot. She's dreamed of traveling the world and this is like being handed a free pass to whatever she wants to see- Lito spends half a week patiently following her around art museums and city streets while she exclaims over the beauty of Mexico.

She keeps Sun company in prison, though Sun never asked for it. She gathers up news from all over the world and then reads it off to Sun, getting her insight. Nomi is delighted at how smart and articulate Sun is- she comments one day that Sun could solve half the world's problems with her clear perspective and calm head. Sun soaks in the news like it's sunshine after winter months.

Amanita is also excited by this connection. She has no idea what Riley looks like, but decides that she's the kind of girl that needs a lot of green tea and girl talk. She converses with Riley through Nomi and is delighted to find that Riley too has a love for unknown music. Amanita bonds especially with Lito, the two of them sharing experiences of coming out. She guides him through the media disbelief and onslaught of hate after the public finds out about Hernando. He credits her for reminding him, day in and day out, love is always more important.

And she sits vigil at Will's bedside on the nights she can't sleep, hacking and hacking at BPO's walls, furious that there's an ache in her chest, like the one that disappeared after her transition, that there is something wrong, missing from her. She knows the others in the cluster feel the same thing, like they're ill at ease in their own bodies, something just wrong. She vows to fix it.

Lito and Kala handle the connection with ease. Lito is use to always having people in his space- as an actor, he has people touching him up constantly, an agent in his ear, yammering about jobs and scripts, girls sliding up to him, people asking for favor and money. The cluster is natural for him. The only thing that can rattle him is when they appear when he is home with Dani and Hernando, but he can easily steal away to the balcony or a cafe, using the excuse that he's 'running lines' to hold his conversations.

Kala comes from a big family. She's use to having little to no privacy, always receiving unsolicited advice and observations from her mother, sisters, and aunts. It seems natural to her that of course, there are other people in the world that now get a say in her life. She enjoys having people to talk to no matter the hour- she can keep Riley company or review files Nomi has liberated. Capheus leads her around parts of Mumbai she never really explored before, forcing her to get out of her house and away from the pressing question- Rajan and marriage.

Will had been alarmed by the connection initially but had settled into it immediately. It was natural for him. 7 more people to protect, in attention to his fellow officers, the people on his beat, the whole of Chicago. It was easy to step into Kala's body when she didn't know how to stop a man from putting his hands on her. Or to help Nomi escape from officers, their next moves like second nature to him.

Riley had been different. Their connection was stronger, clearer, more intense. Like nothing he'd felt before. With her, his emotions swirled into one simple idea- Protect and love. He felt like his heart beat in her chest, like a bruise on her skin would appear on his own. The whole cluster felt this, but Riley was different. Riley was more. And he goes to her, time and time again. And even when he is sedated and delusional, he dreams of her.

Riley had been startled by the connection. She was use to being alone. Don't get close, little hexed girl. Don't love too much- you will break them. You will destroy them. You are hexed to be alone. Run, run, run. Run from heartache and grief. Run from mother, father, husband, daughter. Run away, little hexed girl. She makes friends with drug addicts, with people that pretend to care, pretend to love. Those are people she can't hurt with her curse.

But she was lonely, far more lonely than she had been when she was a little girl in the seaside cave. Lonely because her heart ached with the lose of her family and the knowledge that she can never ever love again, for fear of ending more lives, suffering more deaths. The drugs, they help, but then she wakes up and again she's cold and alone and she can't help but wish for a connection.

The cluster is like stepping into a sauna or sinking into a warm bath. The warmth of their love is overwhelming. From Capheus's easygoing smile and his bearhugs, to Nomi's habit of making tea while speaking a thousand miles an hour, even to Wolfgang's silent presence, reminding her that if anyone gets too close, he will make sure they can never touch her. She is no longer scared to love because every second of her day- from when Lito is entertaining her with his commentary on whatever shit show she's watching to the way that Kala guides her hand to make deliciously spicy and warm dishes, she is filled and surrounded by love. And she is reminded of that when she pushes Will's hair back and kisses his forehead.

Wolfgang and Sun struggle. Intensely private, it's hard for them to understand that now their lives belong to 7 others. Their decisions aren't their own anymore. For Sun, feeling like duty has bound her to her father and brother all her life, rebels at first at the assumption that anyone else should have a say in her life anymore.

But the cluster isn't like her family. They don't demand. They don't force. They don't press. They don't anger her. Instead, they thaw the ice that seemed to cover her skin, from the way Capheus would draw her to his bus, using the radio and his passenger's chatter to mask the way he told her stories, the warm Kenyan heat a welcome changing from the usually cold cell or how Kala would go through her father's dishes, insisting Sun try this or that, the warm Indian food breaking up the routine of prison grub.

She finds herself visiting Riley and Will often, because if there's one thing Riley can appreciate, it's the ability to sit in silence and just think, at ease with company. Sun finds it strange, that she can't put up walls with these people- Nomi fusses over her bruised knuckles after fights in the courtyard and Lito would guide her hands as she sews, explaining that he has been fascinated with this since he was a child and his abuela had taught him, before he had to mask his affection for it because men don't sew.

She's never been one for words, so instead she tries to send out her appreciation for them through their connection, glad that she gets back feelings of joy, of affection, of love. She still can't say much and she'd rather use her fists to help them, but she is grateful for how Nomi discusses the nuclear crisis and the terrorist situation in the Middle East with her in earnest or how Capheus brings cards when she's in solitary and teaches her the games he plays with Jela, laughing when she picks it up and can beat him. They're her people and she doesn't feel duty- just love- to protect them.

Wolfgang can't seem to find the openness within the cluster like the others have. He can't lounge on the couch with Capheus, watching movies, though the man's love for action films would pair nicely with Felix's he thinks. He doesn't drink Nomi's tea or take in Lito's view. He'll visit Sun and the two of them will punch concrete walls in frustration, letting their rage mingle before they can vent it out.

But it's hard for him, the way the they appear in his life, coming to him one by one to check on him after what happened in the mansion, all except Will who remains unconscious, and Kala, who remains sad, furious, hurt, bewildered, and guilty. Lito brings with him a script and distracts him by arguing what weapons this character would really bring- he wants a rocket launcher and that at least makes Wolfgang smile. Sun just comes to train with him, teaching him a little of her fighting techniques and sparing.

He goes to Riley sometimes, because her heartbreak is just like Kala's but he can bear to see her. She reminds him of a younger sister he never had- small and adorable and oh so delicate. It's easier to sit vigil at Will and Felix's bedsides, watching over his brothers. It's hard to let 7 people into his head- but it's harder to keep one stunning, amazing, innocent woman out.

 **AN:** Just a fun little one shot into the minds of our cluster to keep me sane for another month until we get an episode. Please let me know what you think!


End file.
